In Chichester, Calum Rutter sat through three recounts, even though the Leave campaign secured its biggest margin of victory in the county with 62.5 per cent of the vote.

It made for a long night as he did not get home until 10am and had an exam in the afternoon.

However, he recognised the experience was a one-off.

He said: “This was (probably) a once-in-a-lifetime referendum and the chance to be involved in reporting it was exciting.

“I am particularly interested in hard, political news and it can be difficult for a trainee to cover this kind of story outside of writing on a personal blog. This was a great opportunity.”

Calum Rutter’s article in the June 25 edition of The Argus

Interviewing campaigners also gave him the chance to practise his shorthand at speed.

He added: “This was the first time my shorthand had been fast enough to take down long quotes ― some interviewees will not wait for you to catch up ― so it was useful to practise identifying the best quotes to extract, Nobody rambles like activists.”

MA student Taraneh Fathalian covered the vote in Wealden, where turnout was 80 per cent.

Sussex was split between both sides of the argument. Brighton and Hove, Mid Sussex, Horsham and Lewes voted to remain in the EU, while Rother, Eastbourne, Adur, Arun, Worthing, Wealden, Crawley and Chichester went with the national trend to leave.

Whatever happens next it is an exciting time to be a journalist as every day brings a new angle to the ongoing story.

For students at Brighton Journalist Works, the strong links with media outlets such as The Argus offer them great opportunities to gain real experience of a major news story.